8 Chapter 8 - Changes to the body

"Aghhhhhh!!!!" Sylzone screamed as he woke up, clutching at his chest.

He was sweating profusely, rolling around on the bed, grabbing and squeezing anything he could to relieve the pain, but nothing helped.

The pain increased to the point where his entire face was pale and he was forced into a fetal position.

Panic had gripped his entire body at this point. He felt excruciating pain in his eyes, he felt like his heart was expanding forcibly, he felt like he was growing extra lungs, he felt like someone was mincing his legs, and hundreds of other painful sensations. It was almost like something was invading his entire body.

Earlier, he had been sleeping peacefully. He then dozed off and was in a dream state. His dream must've been very nice due to the smile on his face.

Suddenly, he woke up, screaming. There was a massive amount of pain that shot up out of nowhere.

Carmen was startled when he started yelling. She had disappeared and reappeared with some pills to reduce the pain, but it was impossible to feed it to him.

Only after he went into the fetal position did she finally get the chance to shove the pills into his mouth. It eventually got absorbed.

Only after half an hour did all the pain stop. As the pain receded, he felt his vision darkening. He struggled to keep his eyes open, thinking he was going to die, but eventually, exhaustion over took him and he fell silent.

Carmen who sat by his side, knew he wasn't dead because she could barely detect a stream of air flowing in and out of his mouth. That meant he was breathing, barely.

She started examining his internal state.

'How.. is that possible? The chip.. it seems to be an extraordinary chip..'

--

Sylzone finally woke up some time later. The pain was gone. He let out a breath. He turned onto his back and felt something brushing his hair. He looked up and saw Carmen.

"Hey.." she smiled.

He took in a deep breath and released it.

"What happened?" he asked.

She explained what she saw earlier.

Sylzone didn't have a reaction, but she knew he was processing it.

He turned to look at the watch.

"It seems my previous thought was correct, the watch and the chip are indeed related to each other" Sylzone said out loud.

"Would you like to know what it did to your body?" Carmen asked.

Sylzone looked at her in confusion, which disappeared almost immediately.

"What kind of changes did it cause?" he asked.

Carmen stretched her arms and cracked her neck, almost like she was getting ready for something epic. He felt that was amusing.

"Well.. you could say that the chip serves the very same functions you'd think it would, based on the design of it, a bio-mechanical chip. It seems to be lodged in your heart, but not fused with it. Normally, a chip intended to enhance the heart is embedded directly inside the heart wall, with the muscles in the wall gradually fusing with it. However, this chip seems to be sitting in the middle of your heart. There are black veins stretching out from it that have attached themselves to the wall of your heart. I've.. never seen this before so I have no idea what it's supposed to do.

That is the main difference.

The second difference is that, a normal chip stays within the organ that it was inserted into. This chip seems to have completely invaded your nervous system, which means it can access every part of your body.

The third difference is that, when a chip is implanted, if you scan it, you should get an idea of what it is able to do. I can perform this scan with my eyes, but, I feel nothing from it, almost like it has no purpose. This is impossible and confuses me. A chip is fundamentally made of instructions telling it what to do when implanted. I can read that. This chip is completely empty.

The fourth difference is that, it exists, but I feel like the space the chip is occupying is empty. What I mean by that is, it's almost like it's in a different dimension, like.. you could install another chip there. This shouldn't be possible. Each organ can only accept one chip. However, it feels like the chip exists in a different space.

The fifth difference is that, each chip consumes the same energy as your cells, but this chip feels like it doesn't operate on those same rules. I can't sense it taking in energy or outputting it.

The sixth difference is that, this chip feels like it is part of a collection! Normally, a chip can work with other chips in different ways, but this chip, feels like it's yearning for something, trying to reach out. I can sense a similar energy responding from multiple directions. I have no idea if there are other black chips like this or if they are something else.

My final thought is that, since the chip and watch are related, maybe it can trigger it somehow?" Carmen explained.

Sylzone closed his eyes as he took in all this information.

He was silent for a long time before he opened his eyes up again.

'This chip is so mysterious. And it has a family?'

"Do you know if the other chips are on campus?" he asked.

"I can't tell how far away they are. I can only tell that they are reaching out to this chip"

Carmen started scratching the back of her head as though she was analyzing something.

"a total of 5 such connections are reaching back out to this chip" Carmen answered.

"5? .. One's in my heart.. technically my torso. If we go by anatomical structure, I still have a head, 2 arms, and 2 legs. That would be 6 total" Sylzone said out loud.

Carmen nodded.

"What a letdown" Sylzone sighed as he got up.

He cleaned himself up and looked at the time.

'Oh god, I have 5 minutes left!' he thought in a panic. He started rushing to get ready. He put his books in his bag, put his materials away, took a quick shower, and quickly grabbed some food for the trip. Then he rushed to class, sprinting at his max speed. Unbeknownst to him, as he started rushing, a massive distortion began to ripple around him. This distortion even evaded Carmen's senses.

--

Physics 101, Science Building

"Good morning everyone, I hope you had a wonderful first day. Welcome to Physics 101. I mainly teach advanced classes for Juniors and Seniors. This is the only beginner level class I teach, but rest assured, I definitely won't be strict on you guys. Introductory classes are meant to convince people to stay and also invite new people in. If I put you in despair on the first day, my colleagues would berate me to no end" the professor introduced herself.

She laughed as she got near the end of her introduction.

"Now, I do understand the situations of those of you who aren't as lucky as your colleagues.. and I respect the decisions made by the greater society. While I am used to being surrounded by your accomplished seniors, I have no intention of making things hard or awkward for any of you. I know everybody starts somewhere. I just wanted to address that for those of you who think that I'm somehow different just because this is the only low level class that I teach!" the professor continued.

Many nodded their hands but no one sighed in relief.

"Alright.. the field of physics has come very far compared to 100 years ago. Every field of study advanced very slowly in the old age.. as technology became more efficient and humanity slowly evolved, the rate at which new inventions and concepts came out was staggering..."

As the professor was in the middle of her explanation, the door that was at the back of the room suddenly slammed open and a young man could be seen lying on his knees on the ground.

'Damn, why did I have to slip? Ouch. ouch.'

Strangely, no one noticed the commotion. As the young man rushed to a nearby seat while keeping his head down, he was taking deep breaths to calm himself. A massive distortion started to shrink and retract into him. This was Sylzone, who had just rushed here from his room. As he was about to tap the button to mark his attendance, his hands froze and his eyes widened.

On the screen, a textbook had already been registered to Sylzone Godfiend and he was already marked as "present". Timestamped 2:00 P.M.

'What the heck?!'

He looked at his watch and it said 2:08 P.M.

'If I didn't get here until 2:08 P.M., why does it say I came at 2:00 P.M. instead? And a textbook is normally registered at the same time when you arrived..'

'Hey Carmen, why does it say I arrived at 2:00 P.M. when I arrived at 2:08 P.M.?' Sylzone asked.

'Huh? You arrived at 2:00 P.M., and now you've been sitting here for 8 minutes..' Carmen replied in a confused tone.

Silence

'Wait.. hold on.. are you sure you arrived here at 2:08 P.M.?' Carmen questioned.

'Yes!' Sylzone replied.

Currently, Carmen was inside Sylzones' head, but for some strange reason, he felt like she was extremely anxious and looking around everywhere.

'Unbelievable..' Carmen suddenly said.

'What is it? Sylzone said in response.

'This is some really powerful temporal displacement.. It even eluded my senses' Carmen whispered.

'Temporal displacement?' Sylzone repeated.

'Yes, what I'm thinking happened was that when you rushed here, somehow a version of you traveled here, and after you arrived at 2:08 P.M., there was some kind of catch-up mechanic that bridged the 8 minutes, simulating what you would've done. Originally I was thinking of a pause and stop effect, but to simulate your actual self while you weren't here.. goes beyond basic temporal displacement" Carmen explained her thoughts.

'But what was the trigger? I don't remember doing anything special' Sylzone replied.

Immediately, he felt as though his heart was flipped inside out. It didn't hurt, but it sure felt uncomfortable.

'I sense immense levels of activity in your heart. I think the microchip was the source of it. Originally, I thought it lacked an ability due to the fact that I couldn't sense anything from it.

However, now that you explained what happened just now in your eyes, I have a better idea of what this microchip is. Remember when I said, it seems to exist on a different plane? Like, it's there, but feels like it occupies an independent space?

If we go back to what you've done on Monday and earlier today, when they activated, it seems to have been under conditions of high energy exchange. When you were focusing on the equations yesterday, as the professor got closer to you, your mental state peaked in activity. At that point, the watch finally started to show some signs of life. And earlier, when you were rushing here, your fear of being late spiked a rush of adrenaline which caused the chip to finally take action. Do you remember what you read earlier?

Infinitely alternating cycles and triple route pathing could be the key to triggering these on demand!' Carmen explained

There was total silence for the most part, other than the professor lecturing.

After a while, Sylzone stirred.

'Your analysis.. makes sense..' Sylzone muttered.

In his head, there were endless possibilities about what he could do.